Where to Start with Henry James: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Henry James — whether to begin with Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, or The Turn of the Screw. A complete reading guide to James.
Henry James (1843–1916) is one of the great masters of the novel — an American-born writer who spent most of his life in England and whose fiction is the most profound exploration of consciousness, social observation, and the interior life in the English language. His subject is almost invariably the encounter between American energy and European sophistication — what Americans bring to Europe and what they lose in the encounter — and his method is the rendering of consciousness from inside, through a central intelligence who observes and misunderstands and gradually comprehends. He is difficult; he is worth it; begin with Washington Square.
Where to Start: Washington Square (1880)
The most accessible James — and a novel of extraordinary psychological compression. Catherine Sloper, plain and good-natured, is the only child of a wealthy New York doctor who considers her limited. When Morris Townsend, handsome and impoverished, courts her, her father immediately believes he is after her inheritance. The novel is a study in the relationship between intelligence and cruelty: Dr. Sloper is smarter than almost everyone in the novel and uses his intelligence to damage the person who loves him most. Catherine’s gradual, quiet recognition of her father’s contempt — and her response — is one of James’s finest psychological portraits.
Read in an afternoon; begin here.
The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
James’s most celebrated novel — and the best demonstration of his full ambition in his accessible period. Isabel Archer, a young American woman of exceptional spirit and limited experience, comes to England with her aunt and uncle, turns down the eligible Lord Warburton and the decent Caspar Goodwood, and chooses instead — with her newly inherited fortune and her complete freedom — the cultivated, impoverished Gilbert Osmond in Florence. The second half of the novel traces Isabel’s slow comprehension of what she has chosen and why the man she married turned out to be the exact opposite of what she believed him to be.
James’s account of a free woman’s use of her freedom — and of the social and psychological forces that shape even the choices that seem most self-determined — is one of the most important arguments in the history of the novel.
The Turn of the Screw (1898)
James’s most famous short work — a ghost story that functions as a ghost story and as something more ambiguous and more disturbing. A governess arrives at a remote English house to care for two children, Miles and Flora; she begins to see figures she comes to believe are the ghosts of the previous governess and her lover. The question the novella raises — and refuses to answer — is whether the ghosts are real or whether the governess is mentally ill and the children are in danger from her rather than from the ghosts. The most influential short ghost story in English; the most discussed of James’s shorter works.
The Bostonians (1886)
James’s most directly political novel — set in 1870s Boston, where Olive Chancellor, a wealthy feminist, and Basil Ransom, a conservative Mississippi lawyer, compete for the affiliation of Verena Tarrant, a young woman of great charm and oratorical gift who is being presented as the voice of the women’s movement. The novel is James’s most satirical — he is equally sharp about the feminist movement and its opponents — and his most interested in the political dimensions of personal relationships. Less psychological and more dramatically external than his other work; the most accessible after Washington Square.
Reading Henry James
James rewards patience and slow reading: his sentences require attention, his meaning is distributed across long paragraphs, and his characters reveal themselves gradually through accumulation of observed detail rather than dramatic scene. Begin with Washington Square for the simplest prose and the most concentrated situation; proceed to The Portrait of a Lady for the full early James. Read The Turn of the Screw for his most famous shorter work. The late James (The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove) is for readers who have become comfortable with his earlier style and want to follow the development of one of the most extraordinary prose instruments in English.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where should I start with Henry James?
Washington Square (1880) is the most widely recommended starting point for readers new to Henry James — a short, psychologically precise novel about Catherine Sloper, a plain, good-natured New York heiress whose father believes she is being courted for her money, and the question of whether he is right. It is James's clearest and most accessible novel, with a prose style far simpler than his notorious late manner, and a psychological situation of great economy and pain. The Portrait of a Lady is the best starting point for readers prepared for a longer and more ambitious novel; The Turn of the Screw for readers who want a ghost story.
What is Washington Square about?
Washington Square (1880) is set in 1840s New York, where Catherine Sloper, the daughter of a wealthy but contemptuous doctor, is courted by the handsome Morris Townsend. Her father, convinced that Morris wants only her inheritance, forbids the match and uses his knowledge of Catherine's feelings to test her courage. The novel is a psychological study of extraordinary precision — of a plain woman who is also, once you see clearly, stronger and more admirable than anyone around her — and of the cruelty that people inflict on those who love them most sincerely. James's most economical and most accessible long fiction.
What is The Portrait of a Lady about?
The Portrait of a Lady (1881) follows Isabel Archer, a spirited young American woman from Albany who comes to Europe, turns down two suitors she considers limited, and chooses instead — with every freedom in the world — to marry Gilbert Osmond, a cultivated, impoverished expatriate in Florence. The novel is James's sustained inquiry into the use of freedom: Isabel chooses, freely and deliberately, a life that destroys her independence, and the novel's second half follows her gradual comprehension of what she has done and why. James considered it his finest novel; many critics agree.
Is Henry James difficult to read?
Henry James is genuinely difficult, and the difficulty increases across his career. His early novels (Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady) are relatively accessible — the prose is clear, the situations are dramatically sharp. His middle-period work (The Bostonians, What Maisie Knew) is more complex. His late period (The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl) is among the most syntactically demanding prose in English: long sentences with multiple subordinate clauses, psychological qualification, and meaning distributed across entire paragraphs rather than individual sentences. Begin with Washington Square; proceed to The Portrait of a Lady. The late James is best approached after the early and middle work.
